New Semester, New Opportunities (Jess)
Welcome back everyone!
I’ve been meaning to write a new post for a while, but as things do, they got super busy (We all know the drill).
Like I’m sure most of you did, I took full advantage of my break to relax, to refresh and to ultimately prepare for another jam-packed semester ahead. I slept more than I thought was humanly possible (are there competitions in sleeping? I want in), I read a ton, and I binged more TV than is probably healthy!
HOWEVER, I also spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to approach my second semester here at Uni.
I love that we have this great opportunity to reflect on exactly what has gone right or perhaps wrong throughout our first semester as Uni students. I found personally that as the semester went on, I got more tense, more stressed and I guess I ended up channeling a lot of that energy into being slightly angry. Not aggressively angry or anything, just the internal kind that builds inside and you wonder if you’re actually gonna turn green and need a new pair of clothes.
One of the things I came to particularly love at Uni was taking the language, Japanese. I’m absolutely obsessed with the language, the culture and the country of Japan, and so I was doing some research out of personal interest, and I came across something that Japanese people commonly say. It’s the phrase, ‘shouganai’, which essentially means ‘it can’t be helped’ which you may think of in a slightly negative aspect at first, but it’s actually not, and I find the phrase quite freeing! Instead of being caught up by the dumb things people do on trams in the morning before I get to Uni, I’m just saying ‘shouganai’ in my head, and it makes me feel that much better. Say what you may about it, but it works!
Another thing that I love about the start of a second semester, is it means turning over a new leaf that doesn’t feel so intimidating. New Years Resolutions are always so stressful because it’s a whole year you have to keep a promise to yourself, and that’s really hard! A semester is still hard but it’s much easier to work with, and it’s the tiny successes one after another that really make a difference.
My marks from the previous semester weren’t bad, but I love that there’s always room for improvement. To become a better person, better at studying, better at time management…all the like. Don’t you find it so refreshing?!
I’m sure some of you are sitting here rolling your eyes, but in my new leaf, I’m trying to be a more positive person. In all honesty, I didn’t have the best day today – I didn’t perform the best in one of my classes, I was late for a class switching between campuses, my bag broke and I got absolutely poured on (and that’s making it look good). Not the worst problems I could have or even have had though, so I’m taking it for the small speck it is and instead I’m just going to keep on keeping on. I’ve got a lot of things to do (we all do!) so I may as well not spend all that time mulling over – in actuality – such small things!
I’m ready to start this new semester afresh, and I hope that I can encourage you to do that also! Let’s make the most of the next semester together and see what it brings.
All the best with your studying,
Jess